The detection of emergency beacons will be greatly improved by the introduction Galileo. It will carry transponders to relay distress signals to search and rescue organisations. In connection with this, representatives of the Galileo project attended the recent 21st annual Joint Committee Meeting of COSPAS-SARSAT, the international programme for satellite-aided search and rescue. The partners in Galileo are committed to developing the Galileo search and rescue component as an integral part of MEOSAR (Medium Earth Orbit Search And Rescue, the future worldwide search and rescue satellite system. Galileo joined the meeting in a formal capacity as a major contributor to the MEOSAR programme, following the signature of the 'Declaration of Intent to Cooperate on the Development and Evaluation of MEOSAR'. It is a programme to equip satellites that operate in medium- Earth orbits with payloads that receive signals from distress beacons on Earth. These signals are then relayed to rescue organisations, giving them the location of the emergency.
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A colloquium on the scientific and fundamental aspects of the Galileo (satellite navigation) programme will take place in Toulouse, France, from 1 to 4 October addressing three major issues: The fundamental aspects of navigation by satellites and Galileo; Scientific applicationsin meteorology, geodesy, geophysics, space physics, oceanography, land surface and ecosystem studies; and in Scientific developments in physics and dealing with future systems.
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EADS, Thales and Finmeccanica have reached an agreement in principle on sharing responsibilities for pressing ahead with their roles in the troubled European satellite navigation network Galileo, the daily Les Echos said, citinga source.
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The test campaign using the large antenna at Chilbolton Observatory to analyse the navigation signals transmitted by Giove- A, has been successfully completed. Following its launch in December 2005, Giove-A began transmitting navigation signals. Analysis of these signals has involved several facilities, at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre, in the Netherlands, the ESA ground station at Redu, in Belgium, and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Chilbolton Observatory in the UK. Analysis of the signals has allowed some adjustments to be made, re-programming the spacecraft’s navigation signal generation unit to compensate for changes to the signals introduced by the amplifier that boosts them for transmission to Earth and by a filter that protects adjacent frequency bands from interference.